Home » News » $3m lawsuit claims drunk Delta passenger sexually assaulted mother and daughter on 9-hour flight

31 July, 2023

$3m lawsuit claims drunk Delta passenger sexually assaulted mother and daughter on 9-hour flight

Los Angeles, California, USA - MAY 24, 2015. Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-832 lands at Los Angeles Airport (LAX) on May 24, 2015. Delta is one of the biggest airlines in the world serve over 300 destinations.

A Delta Air Lines passenger was served 11 drinks and sexually assaulted a mother and daughter on a nine-hour flight, a US$2 million (AU$3m) lawsuit alleges.

Flight attendants on the plane continued to served the man despite the pairs pleas for help, including a request to stop giving the man drinks, court papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court claim.

The staff proceeded to let the accused abuser walk off the plane when it landed in Greece without alerting the local police of what had happened.

The family’s lawyer, Evan Brustein, said what happened to the mother and daughter was “not just a nightmare, it was completely preventable.”

Court documents claim that the man frightened the daughter by putting his hands on her neck, screaming, making “obscene gestures” and asking for personal information, including the teen’s home address. The family claim he told the mother that he “did not care” the daughter was underage.

After the mother complained, a flight attendant allegedly disregarded her, instructing her to “be patient.”

The mother and daughter allege that the man went to the bathroom and loudly threw up, before returning with a glass of wine.

The drunken passenger was not moved to a different seat, rather the flight attendant instructed the man to “stop talking” to the women. He then let loose, calling the two “f–king bitches” in a drunken rant.

The lawsuit claims that the daughter started having a panic attack and put her head in her mothers lap, but she then felt “the intoxicated Delta passenger’s clammy fingers underneath her shirt climbing up her back … fingering her bra strap and moving over her body.”

She jumped out of her seat crying and then the drunk man put his hands up the mother’s leg before she reacted similarly. The mother demanded the flight attendant call the police but was told to “calm down” before the women were moved away from the man.

The mother and daughter were offered 5000 free airline miles as an apology.

Delta has not commented on the lawsuit itself, but said it “has zero tolerance for customers who engage in inappropriate or unlawful behavior.”

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